#please dabb

Well, in keeping with the pattern:

Season 1 - Dean almost died

Season 2 - Sam died, Dean sold soul, demons unleashed

Season 3 - Dean died

Season 4 - Lucifer was released

Season 5 - Sam died

Season 6 - Cas became God

Season 7 - Dean and Cas got zapped to Purgatory

Season 8 - Sam nearly died - Cas became human - angels unleashed on earth

Season 9 - Dean died, became a demon

Season 10 - Darkness unleashed!

Season 11 - Everyone survived! Mary returned

Season 12 - Cas died, Jack born

Season 13 - Dean got possessed by Michael

Basically Sam hasn’t had something “happen” to him for a long time. He has mainly been a reactive role a lot of the time and since both Dean and Cas have both faced death/possession recently, it stands to reason that Sam is probably due to have something bad happen. Though I would prefer if Dabb twisted this instead and made it something different.

Please Dabb. Please.

So I have been thinking about Michael!Dean (as one does). We know that somehow, someway, Dean will eventually be freed of the possession.

There has been talk among the fans speculating (and in my case HOPING) that Michael!Dean sticks around for more than just a couple episodes. I do hope that the writers let the arc go a bit longer than Demon!Dean lasted back in Season 10.

BUT what I REALLY need is

For the writers to remember that it has been established way back in Season 5 that an archangel leaves its vessel nearly destroyed. Remember in Free to Be You and Me when we saw Raphael’s vessel in really bad shape, catatonic in a hospital, and Castiel tells Dean it would be much worse for Dean as Michael is much more powerful? Now there may be some wiggle room in just how powerful AU Michael is. But not much, right?

There has to be a reason established for Dean being able to recover more quickly or to not be affected so disastrously once Michael is given the boot. (Or i suppose the third option is they just make Dean be catatonic, but no thanks!). I really really really hope they do not forget this and just gloss over it and Dean is just fine afterwards.

Also, I VERY much want to see Jensen playing Michael AND the post possession Dean. Because, let’s face it, Jensen would crush it.

BONUS : Castiel Team Free Will helping pick up the pieces aiding in his recovery.

I’m opening this post by paraphrasing Misha and quoting myself here, but this is truly the gist of his statement during his Asylum18 Sunday panel in Blackpool:

Cas is now feeling an almost cult-like devotion to the baby and Castiel powered up is very focused and soldier-y, but, no, this doesn’t necessarily mean that his humanity is compromised or that it would make him into an unfeeling robot of some kind.

I’m not going to lie: I have been racking my brain all week (mostly racking it at and with @tinkdw), trying to make sense of exactly why it could be true that the nephilim is influencing Cas into a “cult-like devotion” without affecting Cas’ free will. Like, seriously, WTF is that all about?

I’ve been racking my brain not only because of my own interpretation of what the narrative has explicitly been telling me this season, and especially the push forward for Cas’ character arc that occurred during 12x19, but also because the contradiction in the setup of Cas’ situation was offered to me by the man who actually plays this character and, you know, would know if Cas under the “influence” meant that he wasn’t himself. But going on Misha’s statement, about how he perceived the nephilim Power Up, Cas is still Cas, with his humanity intact. 

How?

How can this be possible? How the hell can “cult-like devotion” not mean the same as control? And if the nephilim isn’t outright controlling Cas, as in putting actions in his head that he’s meant to perform, then this “devotion” must still be compromising Cas’ free will. Cas’ need to protect the child comes out of a feeling of “devotion” that Cas has not chosen for himself.

So am I going to have to admit defeat then and throw my hands up and discard everything that I love so dearly about the glorious details of the 12x19 narrative structure? Well? Should I? Will I? Am I?

Nope.

Today my brain finally, finally found the missing piece of this puzzle, and that piece was right in front of my nose all along, mentioned in 12x19 over and over and, more than that, being one of the most significant aspects of Cas’ character arc - and that piece, my friends and fellow fandomers, is faith.